Baku, Fineko/abc.az. Yesterday, summing up with the government the results of socio-economic development in the first half of 2012, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has set a target of at least doubling the country’s population.

President Aliyev stated that today the population had reached 9.3 million people, and in the next few years the figure is going to be 15 million and even possible 20 million people.

"This process continues and is going to continue. We are now taking some additional measures to stimulate this process further," he added. “Stimulation of the demographic boom pursues purely practical purposes and is linked with the fact that "in today’s world, unfortunately, in many cases norms of international law do not work and are ignored".

"In the foreground there is the factor of force. In fact, this picture was typical for the Middle Ages. Just after World War II - after setting a new world order, new rules - the norms of international law have been adopted as a basis. That is the current situation, but looking at the trends and processes in the region and the world, we see that sometimes steps are taken which are fundamentally contrary to international law, and the power factor comes to the fore. If you are stronger then you are right. It is not our choice, but unfortunately the ongoing processes in the world show that. To be strong, you need a strong economy, military-industrial potential and a large population, so we need to deals with this mater seriously. Until now, these processes had a natural character. Just with the growth of the economy, the natural growth of the population became more intense as well. We see it in the statistical data. In recent years the birth rate has been higher than 10-15 years ago. This is an issue that is directly linked to economic and social factors. But, I repeat, we must approach this issue through a new prism. The Azerbaijani population should grow even faster," the President stated.

Omitting not mythical external threats, the increase in population up to 20 million people will bring Azerbaijan into the category of such countries as Holland and Uzbekistan on the human occupancy. At that, the national market will be self-sufficient and effective – international corporations will release their products exclusively for the Azerbaijani market.

Already today the Azerbaijani people, having a number of more than 50 million people, has already transferred to the category of great nations, but less than 20% of Azerbaijanis reside directly in the Azerbaijan Republic.

12.07.2012 09:17